The Dark Personality Traits Fueling Cybercrime

CrowdStrike has long said, “You don’t have a malware problem — you have an adversary problem.” Much like we analyze the malware and tools used in cyberattacks, we must also learn about the people who orchestrate them. Adam and Cristian are joined by Cameron Malin, a behavioral profiler who specializes in understanding adversaries and the “why” behind their activity. Cameron built the FBI’s Cyber Behavioral Analysis Unit, which works to understand the motivations for cybercrime across different types of offenses and has focused for years on exploring why adversaries do what they do. In this episode, he discusses how the discipline of cyber behavioral profiling emerged, how experts approach interviewing and analyzing adversaries, and the “dark triad” and “dark tetrad” of personality traits commonly observed in cyberattacks.